The Rundown

In this guide, you will learn how to use Manus to script, generate, and assemble a short promotional video from any written content you already have. No video editing experience required.

Who This Is Useful For

• Content marketers repurposing written content into social video without a production budget
• Newsletter brands and publishers driving traffic back to full articles with short teasers
• Founders and solo creators who want video output without the time or tools to produce it manually

What You Will Build

A 15-20 second portrait-format teaser video ready for Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or TikTok. In our demo video, we used an F1 article about the 2026 Australian Grand Prix -- but this workflow works with any written content you already have.

What You Need to Get Started

• A Manus account
• A blog post, article, or press release saved as a PDF or Markdown file
• Your brand logo (PNG preferred)
• Optional but recommended: a royalty-free background music file downloaded in advance

Step 1 Save Your Content as a File

Open your article in a browser and save it as a PDF: File > Print > Save as PDF.

Uploading a file is always better than pasting text -- it is fewer steps for the AI and produces more reliable results. PDF and Markdown both work.

Pro tip: The richer your source content, the better Manus's script options will be. A 500-word article with a clear narrative arc will produce stronger hooks than a short press release with only facts and figures.

Step 2 Set Up Your Manus Project

This is a one-time setup. Everything you configure here carries over to every video you generate in this project.

Go to manus.im > Projects > New Project

Name your project (e.g., "Social Videos -- [Your Brand]")

Under Instructions, paste:

*You are a video producer for [your brand name]. Your job is to transform written content into branded videos.*

Open the Files panel and upload your brand logo. Manus will use it as the closing bumper on every video.

If you have a brand style sheet (colors, fonts, logo usage), upload that too.

Pro tip: Upload examples of your previous social posts alongside your logo. Manus can reference them to match the text overlay style and visual pacing you already use.

Step 3 Write Your Prompt

Open a New Task inside your project. Attach your PDF, then use this prompt:

*Create a 15-20 second teaser video based on the attached article. The CTA is to read the full article. Generate it in portrait orientation for Instagram Reels. Give me four script options before you generate the video. Use default mode. Add background music and a voiceover.*

Why "four script options"? Video generation costs 499-800 credits per run. Asking for options first costs almost nothing and lets you pick the best angle before any rendering begins.

Why "default mode"? Default mode uses roughly five times fewer tokens than quality mode. Use it for all test runs. Switch to quality mode only for your final render. As a bonus, each run in default mode trains Manus's project memory.

Pro tip: Be specific about audio. Always tell Manus whether you want a voiceover, background music, or both. Leaving it open produces unpredictable results.

Step 4 Pick Your Script

Manus returns four script options before generating anything. Read each one and pick the angle most likely to stop someone mid-scroll.

For most content, the most dramatic or emotionally resonant hook outperforms the factual summary. Reply with your chosen option number and any tweaks you want before Manus starts rendering.

Step 5

Generation takes 5-10 minutes. When the video is ready, check:

• Does the hook land in the first two seconds?
• Is the voiceover pacing comfortable?
• Does the CTA clearly direct viewers to the full article?
• Does the closing bumper appear cleanly at the end?

You can ask Manus to revise specific sections without regenerating the entire video.

The individual keyframes and clips also appear as standalone assets in your project canvas, which you can reuse for story posts, ad creatives, or thumbnails.

A note on voiceover. Manus does not have a precise sense of where each sentence lands within a clip. Keep the script short and tight. If the voiceover sounds off, it is almost always a script length issue.

Going Further

To stretch your credits further:

• Upload B-roll footage, brand photography, and pre-cleared music to Google Drive
• Connect Manus to Google Drive via the integrations panel
• Update your project instructions to pull from those assets before generating new ones

To lock in your workflow permanently, click "Make this process into a reusable skill" inside the project once you have dialed in your preferences. That skill stays assigned to this project and does not affect your other Manus projects.